# CovidPolicy-Canada
A timeline of Covid-19 mitigation policy in Canada

CovidPolicy-Canada gathers information on public health measures for each province and territory in Canada. This information can assist in understanding government responses in every province across Canada. Public policies implemented by governments were recorded on a scale from 0 to 3 to reflect the degrees of restrictions in 3 different domains: school, workplace, and other, which are denoted as C1, C2, and C3 respectively. 

The population in each province/territory is divided by 16 age groups. [Populations.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Archive/Populations.csv) file records the population of each age group as well as the total population in each province/territory.

Information on public health measures in each province/territory was gathered using government and news websites. [Mitigation Implementations Timelines](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Archive/Mitigation%20implementations%20timelines.xlsx) reports timelines of restrictions for every province/territory. This document can be used to validate the coding. Using the timelines and data dictionary, master CSV files were created. [Provincial.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial.csv) reports the degree of restrictions the government implemented on each province/territory on a daily basis beginning on January 1, 2020, until December 20, 2021. Note that [Provincial.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial.csv) file provides an estimate for the degree of restrictions in Canada and Atlantic Bubble based on the assigned degrees of restrictions for each province/territory. 

[Provincial_Data.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial_Data.csv) was created to record the degree of restrictions for each province/territory since December 20, 2021, and to calculate the degree of restrictions in Canada and Atlantic Bubble since January 1st, 2020 based on [Weighted_Average.m](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Code/Weighted_Average.m). For convenience, provinces/territories in [Provincial_Data.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial_Data.csv) were rearranged to match the order used in [Populations.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Archive/Populations.csv).

Please be aware that in [Provincial.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial.csv) and [Provincial_Data.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial_Data.csv), columns corresponding to the degree of restrictions in school (C1), workplace(C2) and other(C3), are arranged as C1, C3, C2. 

Format for Data Dictionary and CSV file on this page was adapted from Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. CSV file that has dates in the following format: YYYYMMDD. 

Additionally, our dataset was compared to the dataset from Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. Side by side comparison can be found under [Dataset Comparison2](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Archive/Dataset%20comparison2.xlsx). We understand that the previous dataset provided by Oxford might be updated and hence it might not match to what our dataset comparison indicates; for clarity, in [Dataset Comparison2](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Archive/Dataset%20comparison2.xlsx) file, we have highlighted the date when the data was accessed from their repository in yellow.


The degree of restrictions assigned for each province/territory is based on the public health mitigation measures in place although the public compliance with these measures might differ. Due to a lack of data for public compliance, we have decided to base our reasoning on the public health announcements and the policy set initially. For full descriptions of the restrictions and their corresponding values refer to our [Data Dictionary](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data%20Dictionary.md). 

A degree of 3 is assigned to schools, C1, during holiday breaks as schools are closed. 

The degree of restrictions and the news were updated every 2-3 weeks. 

# Changes to the data in [Provincial.csv](https://github.com/ddick8/CovidPolicy-Canada/blob/main/Data/Provincial.csv)


*As of May 30, 2022:*


1, Between March 1st and March 21st, the C2 (workplace) degree of restrictions for Ontario is changed to 1 as there are still some restrictions such as mask mandate in place and there are some regulatory requirements in place. 

2, Between March 1st and March 21st, the score assigned to C3 (other) for Ontario was 
changed to 1 since the mask mandate was still in place; note that after March 21st,  
wearing a mask is still recommended which makes C2 at level 1 of restrictions in Ontario. 

3, Between March 17t and April 4th, the mask mandate was still in place in public settings in Yukon; therefore, it is agreed upon to change the degree of restrictions (for C3) to 1 for this period. 

4, Between March 21st and March 31st, the C3 level of restrictions in Nova Scotia is changed to 1 as wearing a mask is still strongly recommended, and according to the definition of each degree of restriction, it is agreed to change the C3 score to 1 for this period instead of 0. 

